Charley's first year
by AnonymousMSQ
Summary: Follow a first year, Charley as she goes to Hogwarts. See everything that happens from another perspective. : I'm rubbish at summaries, so yeah. Please read!


**I don't own anything. Harry Potters is all JKRowling's.**

As Charley woke up on the first of September, the first thought that hit her was that finally after 11 years of waiting, she was going to Hogwarts. Her older brothers and sister were there and had been teasing her all summer about how awful it would be. But Charley had never believed them. She was tough - when you have 3 brothers, that's second nature. But now the day was actually here, she was scared. Petrified even. Her trunk was already packed under her bed and she had her robes and wand in a rucksack. She jumped out of bed and looked at the clock. It was only five o'clock. She had ages before they would leave. She decided to go for a run to calm her nerves.

She went downstairs slowly, for if her brothers heard her, they would want to come with her, and she wanted to be alone. She pulled on her running shoes and let herself out of the back door. As she fell in to stride, her nerves disappeared and she pushed herself harder until she was almost sprinting along the road. All of a sudden, a ball of black fur whipped into her hands and she caught it.

"Inka! You scared me!" She shouted as she stroked her cat. Inka dropped a small mouse on to her shoe and ran off again. Charley looked at her watch. It was almost 6, she ought to get back before someone started worrying about her. She turned round and began the long ascent home.

As she ran into the driveway, her mother came out of the house.

"Where _have _you been? I've been up for an hour waiting for you. It's almost 7 and you know how much there is to do before you go to school. I don't know why you were being so _selfish._" She yelled.

"Sorry Mama. I kinda lost track of time." She replied. Her brothers were all sitting at the table eating breakfast. Charley watched as Luke levitated his bowl. He was the first of the Russell children to leave Hogwarts, and had just turned 17, so was still in awe of being able to use magic outside school. Charley fell into her chair and took off her shoes. Her younger twin sisters ambled into the room in their pyjamas. Mrs Russell started her rant at them for not being up early enough. Timothy rolled his eyes and winked at her. He was almost 16 and was about to start his sixth year.

"You'll have to watch out for Malfoy. He's going into your year. Make sure you're friends with him, though. His family is loaded." Timothy said. Charley scowled at him. She was used to his taunts about the Malfoys and how rich they were. And she already hated them for it.

The Russells weren't rich, and this made Charley bitter. Being sandwiched in the middle of 4 older and 4 younger siblings, she was fifth in line for most clothes and shoes, which she didn't mind, but to have just _one _new pair of shorts a year would be nice because they wouldn't be all worn and disgusting. Half and hour and much running around later, Mrs Russell called up the stairs,

"Time to go everyone! Your father's car is here! Everyone in. Timothy, Luke, get in the front. Jack, Larissa, Charlotte, get in the back and the twins in the boot seats. Robert and Masha, you need to go next door with Mrs Carmo. Everyone get in. NOW. Timothy, put the trunks in the boot with the twins. Larissa, please take these two next door. We're leaving in _five minutes._"

Ten minutes later they were back at the house because Larissa had forgotten her make-up bag. And half an hour after that, they had to go back for Jack's box with his tricks in it. An hour later, they were almost at Kings Cross. It was 10:55, so they only had 5 minutes before the train left, as they had been forced to go back so many times.

"Ok, Luke, you and the twins need to get all the trunks onto the train. Jack, Larissa and Charlotte, go and get on the train. You'll be the death of me, you really will." Mrs Russell ordered. They walked through the wall between platforms nine and ten. An enormous red steam train was billowing smoke out into the atmosphere. All around were muggle (non-wizarding) and wizard families shouting goodbyes and children trying to get onto the train before it left. Luke brought all of their trunks onto the train, before waving and disappearing back into the muggle world. Mrs Russell came bustling forward. "Goodbye dears, have a good term, send me an owl when you get there. Papa said to be good before he left for the Ministry of Magic this morning. Good bye!" Her and the twins waved.

Timothy and Larissa disappeared with their trunks into different carriages with their friends, leaving Charley feeling a little lost. Inka jumped out of her basket and ran off down the corridor. Charley was left feeling tired and lonely. She went into a carriage which looked like it only had first years in it. They all looked up simultaneously.

"Hello," One of them said. "Who are you?"

"Uh, hi, I'm Charley Russell." She replied hesitantly.

"I'm Terry Boot. This is Hannah, Lavender and Kevin." He gestured to them in turn. "Do you want to sit in here, there's space?" Charley gratefully accepted and fell into her seat, after the five of them had hauled her trunk into the luggage rack. Talk quickly turned to families.

"I'm a pure-blood." Charley said hesitantly looking at them as if this may offend them. "But I don't go on about it. It's all just blood. I can't do any magic yet." Terry looked at her strangely.

"You know people that go on about things like that?"

"Yeah, the Malfoy family. They go on and on about it." Charley replied to the general astonishment of her peers. They talked for the rest of the journey, sharing their food until finally, the train drew into Hogsmeade station.

**Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed. Please review. Thanks! ******


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